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Do you consider yourself a polyglot?

 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots Post Reply
89 messages over 12 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 1 ... 11 12 Next >>
Serpent
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 Message 1 of 89
22 November 2011 at 2:59pm | IP Logged 
Such a simple question, but I went back till where I had stopped reading the forum and I can't find anything like this. So:

1. Do you consider yourself a polyglot?
2. Are you planning to become one?
3. If you are, what are you planning to achieve before you can call yourself a polyglot?

Let's try not to discuss whose criteria are better and let's keep this in terms of this forum or CEFR if possible.


As for myself, I still don't think I'm a polyglot. To consider myself to be one, I feel I need to reach basic fluency (B1 actively+being nearly error-free, B2/C1 passively) in two more languages, preferably German and a Romance one (or at least not two Romance languages).
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Ari
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 Message 2 of 89
22 November 2011 at 3:32pm | IP Logged 
1. Yeah, sure
2. Doesn't apply
3. Doesn't apply
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prz_
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 Message 3 of 89
22 November 2011 at 3:40pm | IP Logged 
1. Not yet.
2. Definitely YES.
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Fasulye
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 Message 4 of 89
22 November 2011 at 4:17pm | IP Logged 
1. Yes, I consider myself a polyglot.

2. ( ) But I have never planned to become one in my youth. I just learned one language, then the next, then the next... When I was older than 30, I decided to study Romance Philology and at that time I systematically studied several languages with the idea to keep them active in later life.

3. ( )

So I can answer this question very shortly!

Fasulye

Edited by Fasulye on 23 November 2011 at 8:24am

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Solfrid Cristin
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 Message 5 of 89
22 November 2011 at 4:17pm | IP Logged 
1. Yes I do. I see that some feel that you should speak languages that span several different language families to consider yourself a "real polyglot", but as long as I speak several languages I do consider myself a ployglot.

2. Does not apply.
3. Does not apply.
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DaraghM
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 Message 6 of 89
22 November 2011 at 4:23pm | IP Logged 
1. No.
2. Eventually, I hope to become somebody with basic fluency in at least 5 languages, and a working knowledge of at least 15 others.

3. My aims are as follows,

Basic Fluency: English, Spanish, French, Russian, Irish, maybe also Hungarian.
Working Knowledge: Italian, Thai, Indonesian, Portuguese, Danish, Polish, Latvian, Greek, Estonian, Swedish, Czech, German, Japanese, Mandarin or Cantonese, Arabic, Hebrew. (This second list is likely to change)

Where I'm currently at,

Native Fluency:  English
Basic Fluency: Spanish
Nearly Basic Fluency: French, Irish (mainly due to 6 years and 14 years schooling)
Beginner\Intermediate: Russian
Beginner (in order of strength): Portuguese, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Danish, Indonesian, Thai, Latvian, Estonian, Greek, Czech.
Yet to Try: German, Swedish, Japanese, Mandarin




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iguanamon
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 Message 7 of 89
22 November 2011 at 4:53pm | IP Logged 
To answer the OP's questions:
1) No
2) Probably not
3) N/A

The word "polyglot" simply means "many tongues" or "many languages". The number of languages one must speak is not specified neither is the level of proficiency specified, except by the OP. How many is "many"- more than two, more than three, more than seven? Must those languages have little relation to each other?

Is the name one is called that important? Who decides the cut-off level to reach polyglot status? What does one receive upon achieving that status? What's in that name, bragging rights, ego?

I think the OP has answered his/her own question. As far as I know, there is no "brotherhood" or "guild" of polyglots that sets admission standards. You define yourself and if you are not up to that definition then that fact will soon become apparent when you try to demonstrate those claimed abilities. Barring the lack of a specific set of generally accepted criteria for claiming polyglot status (beyond the ability to speak "many" languages), when you meet your own definition then you will be a "polyglot" as you have defined the term yourself.

Edited by iguanamon on 22 November 2011 at 5:04pm

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Serpent
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 Message 8 of 89
22 November 2011 at 5:03pm | IP Logged 
Great replies, thank you everyone:)
Solfrid Cristin wrote:
1. Yes I do. I see that some feel that you should speak languages that span several different language families to consider yourself a "real polyglot", but as long as I speak several languages I do consider myself a ployglot.
To clarify, I don't mean I think it's necessary to speak languages from several language families or even groups. But for me how many counts as "several" depends on the languages. If I was to reach fluency in Romanian before German, this would certainly count (along with one more language), while Indonesian alone would also count.


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